Community Care case study - Calm Project

Diane, 14, was referred to the Calm Project 14 years old by Social Work Services due to concerns about her personal safety and welfare. Diane was repeatedly absconding from home and placing herself at risk. She was self-harming, drinking alcohol regularly and had begun experimenting with drugs. Her self-worth and self-esteem was low and she stated that there wasn't a single adult in her life whom she trusted.

Diane was matched with a Mentor who met with her on a weekly basis and a positive relationship began to form. After a while, Diane declared to her Social Worker that her Mentor was the “only person she trusted in her life” at that stage. She began to open up more and more about her problems to her Mentor and she started engaging in issue-based sessions and self-help programmes around topics such as personal safety, drugs and alcohol, self-harm and risk taking behaviour.

It wasn’t long before significant improvements began to emerge. Diane stopped absconding and placing herself at risk, returned to school on a full time basis and her relationship with her family improved.
Eventually Diane moved on from the Calm Project and she wrote this in her evaluation feedback:

"I don’t know where I would be without Calm. Dead probably. I was out of control and was heading for bad things. No-one believed in me, everybody just thought I was bad news. But my head was just so messed up. My Mentor understood me and seen the good in me and helped me get away from all the bad things I was doing. Thank you”